The destruction of Sodom in Genesis 19 is swift and merciless. Fire and brimstone rain down, and the city is gone. But the Targum Jonathan inserts a detail that changes everything: before the fire, God sent mercy.
"The Word of the Lord had caused showers of favour to descend upon Sedom and Amorah, to the intent that they might work repentance, but they did it not." Rain came first. Blessing came first. The people of Sodom looked at the showers and concluded that "wickedness is not manifest before the Lord"—that God either did not see or did not care. Only then did the sulfur and fire fall "from before the Word of the Lord from Heaven."
This theological addition is pure Targum. It does not exist in the Hebrew text. The translators refused to let God destroy a city without first offering a way out.
The Targum reshapes the rest of the narrative with similar precision. When two angels arrive in Sodom, Lot greets them and prepares unleavened cakes—and "it seemed to him as if they did eat." Like Abraham's visitors in the previous chapter, these angels only appeared to consume food. When the mob surrounds Lot's house, the angels strike the attackers with "a suffusion of the eyes"—not blindness, but a confusion of vision that left them groping uselessly for the door.
As the angels lead Lot's family out of the city, the Targum adds a striking detail about the division of labor: "one of them returned into Sedom to destroy it, and one remained with Lot." One angel, one task—the same rule established in Genesis 18. Lot begs for time: "I beseech of thee, endure with me a little hour, until I have prayed for mercy from before the Lord." He negotiates to flee to the small city of Zoar, arguing that "it is small, and the guilt thereof light."
The timing is precise in a way the Hebrew is not. "The sun had passed the sea, and come forth upon the earth, at the end of three hours, and Lot entered into Zoar." Three hours after sunrise, the destruction began.
Then comes Lot's wife. The Hebrew says only that she "looked back" and became a pillar of salt. The Targum explains why she looked and why salt was the punishment. "She looked after the angel, to know what would be in the end of her father's house, for she was of the daughters of the Sedomaee." She was from Sodom. She looked back out of loyalty to her own people. And "because she sinned by salt—bemilcha—she was manifestly punished" with salt. The word play in the Aramaic connects her crime to her fate.
Meanwhile Abraham stood at the place where he had prayed, watching smoke rise from the plain "as the smoke of a furnace." God remembered Abraham's righteousness and pulled Lot from the wreckage. But Lot's rescue was Abraham's merit, not his own.
Two angels came to Sedom at the evening; and Lot sat in the gate of Sedom. And Lot saw, and rose up to meet them from the gate of the tabernacle. And he bowed his face to the ground,
and said, I beg now, my lords, turn now hither, and enter the house of your servant, and lodge, and wash your feet; and you will arise and proceed on your way. And they said to him, No; for in the street we will lodge.
And he persuaded them earnestly, and they turned aside to be with him; and they entered his house, and he made a repast for them, and prepared unleavened cakes. And it seemed to him as if they did eat.
They had not yet lain down, when the wicked men of the city, the men of Sedom, came round upon the house, from the youth to the old man, all the people throughout.
And they cried to Lot, and said to him, Where are the men who entered with thee tonight? Bring them out to us, and we will lie with them.
And Lot went out to them to the gate, and shut the door after him.
And he said, I pray, my brethren, do not thus wickedly.
Behold, now, I have two daughters who have had no dealing with a man; I would now bring even them out to you to do to them as is meet before you, rather than you should do evil to these men, because they have entered in to lodge under the shadow of my roof.
And they said, Give up this. And they said, Did not this come alone to sojourn among us? and, behold, he is making himself a judge, and judging the whole of us. But now we will do worse to thee than to them. And they prevailed against the man, against Lot, greatly, and came near, to shatter the door.
And the Men stretched forth their hands, and brought Lot unto them in the house, and shut the door.
But the men who were at the gate of the house they struck with a suffusion of the eyes, from the young to the old, and they wearied themselves to find the gate.
And the Men said to Lot, Hast thou yet in this city kinsman or brother? Thy sons-in-law, thy sons and thy daughters, take forth from the place;
{for we are about to destroy this place,} for the cry of it before the Lord is great, and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it.
And Lot went forth, and spake with his sons-in-law who had taken his daughters, and said, Arise, come forth from this place; for the Lord destroyeth the city. But the word was as a wonder, (and he) as a man ranting, in the eyes of his sons-in-law.
And at the time that the morning was about to uprise, the angels were urgent upon Lot, saying, Up, take thy wife and thy two daughters who are with you, lest you perish in the condemnation of the inhabitants of the city.
But he delayed: and the men laid hold on his hand, and on the hand of his wife, and on the hand of his two daughters, for mercy from the Lord was upon them. And they brought them forth, and set them without the city.
And it was that as they led them without, one of them returned into Sedom, to destroy it; and one remained with Lot, and said to him, Be merciful to your life; look not behind you, and stand not in all the plain; to the mountain escape, or you perish.
And Lot said to him, I beseech of thee endure with me a little hour, until I have prayed for mercy from before the Lord.
Behold, now, thy servant hath found mercy before Thee, and Thou hast multiplied the kindness Thou hast done me in saving my life, and I am not able to escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.
Behold, now, I pray, this city, it is a near habitation, and convenient (for us) to escape thither; and it is small, and the guilt thereof light. I will flee thither, then. Is it not a little one? and my life shall be preserved.
And He said, Behold, I have accepted thee in this matter also, that I will not overthrow the city for which thou hast spoken, to destroy it, that thou mayest escape to it.
Hasten and flee thither: for I cannot do any thing till thou have entered there. Therefore he called the name of the city Zoar.
The sun had passed the sea, and come forth upon the earth, at the end of three hours, and Lot entered into Zoar.
And the Word of the Lord had caused showers of favour to descend upon Sedom and Amorah, to the intent that they might work repentance, but they did it not: so that they said, Wickedness is not manifest before the Lord. Behold, then, there are now sent down upon them sulphur and fire from before the Word of the Lord from Heaven.
And He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and the herbage of the earth.
And his wife looked after the angel, to know what would be in the end of her father's house, for she was of the daughters of the Sedomaee; and because she sinned by salt (bemilcha) she was manifestly punished; behold, she was made a statue of salt.
And Abraham arose in the morning (and went) to the place where he had ministered in prayer before the Lord.
And he looked towards Sedom and Amorah, and all the land of the plain, and saw, and, behold, the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
And it was when the Lord destroyed the cities of the plain, that He remembered the righteousness of Abraham, and sent forth Lot from the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities wherein Lot had dwelt.
And Lot went up from Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; because he feared to reside in Zoar. And he dwelt in a cavern, he and his two daughters.
And the elder said to the less, Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to come to us after the way of the whole earth:
come, let us make our father drink wine, and when he is drunken we will lie with him, and raise up sons from our father.
And they made their father drink wine that night, and he was drunk. And the elder arose, and lay with her father, nor did he know when she lay down, nor when she arose.
And it was the day following, and the elder said to the less, Behold, now, I lay my evening with the father; let us make him drink wine this night also, that he may be drunk; and go thou and lie with him, that we may raise up sons from our father.
And they made their father drink wine that night also, and he was drunk, and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he knew not in her lying down nor in her rising up.
And the two daughters of Lot became with child by their father.
And the elder brought forth a son, and she called his name Moab, because from her father she had conceived. He is the father of the Moabaee unto this day.
And the younger also brought forth a son, and she called his name Bar-Ammi, because he was the son of her father. He is the father of the Ammonite people unto this day.
